Wayne Rooney, England’s Golden Boy, let his fiery temperament get the better of him just when he needed to keep his cool, stamping on Ricardo Carvalho in the 62nd minute with the quarter-final against Portugal poised at 0-0.

He made the matter worse by shoving Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portuguese winger waded in to protest with the referee.

Rooney got the red card and down to 10 men, England battled on but lost on penalties with Ronaldo hammering the final nail into their coffin by converting the match-winning spot kick.

“People will say that the referee gave the red card because I spoke with him. This is not true. I spoke with him to say it was a foul, but I only said it was a foul, not a red card,” said Ronaldo.

“I think the English press will say Rooney was sent off because of me but it is not true.”

Ronaldo was seen winking at his bench after the incident but refused to comment on why.